AUSTIN, Texas _ Depressed about the state of the country? Worried we're in a handbasket going you know where? Wondering how to make sense of it all?
Well, perhaps you should sprint on down to the 31st annual South by Southwest festival in this Texas university town. Here _ the event wraps Sunday _ you'll see computer and tech geniuses galore. Gamers. Futurists. Film artists. Musicians. Everything cool.
And you know who, the person we're most tired of talking and thinking about, hasn't been anywhere to be found. But former Veep Joe Biden was. (He talked about fighting cancer, not politics.)
Here in Austin, America and indeed all of humanity are already great, even though you might not recognize some of the hairdos, styles, tattoos, languages, cultural differences and, well, you get it. Hey, it's a fashion scene.
At South by Southwest _ SXSW for short _ the new stuff is always amazing: Artificially intelligent robots (coming faster than you think, although bugs still must be worked out), avant-garde film, the most pulsating music sounds ever, simulated flight, self-aware 3-D printers. The list is as endless as the human imagination.
Not surprisingly, plenty of celebs attend SXSW. Among the crowd this year have been astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actors Melissa McCarthy, Pierce Brosnan, Josh Duhamel, Ryan Gosling, Seth Rogen and Jason Sudeikis, foodie Rachel Ray and wrestler John Cena. (And, yes, I have a selfie with him. Sooner or later, everyone in America will.)
The festival puts on display America's leadership in technology, culture, film and music but also creates an atmosphere of border-defying cultural exchange.
Glitz and glamor, quirky fashions, and proud techies aside, the conversations at SXSW are always meaty.
And yes, the election has been a big topic this year. But so have been the really broad issues, such as how digitalization is affecting us and what our society will look like as even more astonishing technological achievements come at us. For instance, how do activists handle an era of social media surveillance? How do humans stay connected in an automated workplace? What are the legal issues when you work at home, which 80 percent of Americans say they'd like to do someday? (You can check out the notes on dozens of such conversations at SXSW.com.)
Of course, SXSW 2017 hasn't been all happy vibes and optimism. A USA Today writer decided one day's most important story was researchers worrying about machine-learning systems being used by dictators for nefarious purposes. (Tracking immigrants. Thwarting law enforcement. Pinpointing rebels. Predicting which babies would be "good" for the state and which ones might be "bad.") Bummer.
And in an alarming and depressing note, there were some foreign music artists who said they were prevented by U.S. immigration officials from entering the country for the festival, or who arrived, were detained and then deported.
This followed a flap over contract language that seemed to suggest some artists from foreign countries who played in non-festival venues might be deported. Festival officials vigorously denied this, saying it was all a misunderstanding. But in light of the national angst over anything to do with deportation, they promised to rewrite contract language for 2018.
There has also been a lot of comment by SXSW attendees stunned that Uber and Lyft do not do business in Austin because of squabbles with city officials. In a venue where parking costs can quickly resemble a mortgage payment, this has been a major annoyance for many, although there are several hire-a-ride companies that do operate in the city.
But, all in all, there is a joy in Austin during SXSW that is infectious and encouraging. And global.
Nationalism? Not welcome here.
How refreshing.
